Digital Painting Level 1: Fundamentals of Digital Art Techniques

New to Outschool? Enjoy $20 off this class with promocode: CHRISCH20 (New users only).

This is a class for beginner digital artists who want to learn basic digital painting fundamentals. Every week, we will delve into different topics, covering a new digital painting technique each week.

-- LEARNING GOALS --

✅ Make digital painting easy and natural so it's just like drawing on paper!
✅ Understand the "rules" of digital painting, and why it's so different from traditional drawing.
✅ Understand how to use layers and why to use them.
✅ Learn which brushes are most important, and which ones you don't need.

-- SCHEDULE --

🔰 Week 1: Still Life. We will paint a still life of a cup. You'll learn the alpha lock technique, enabling you to effortlessly paint smooth gradients.

🔰 Week 2: Landscape. We will paint a landscape of a mountain scene. You'll master the multiply layer technique, seamlessly adding color to your pencil drawings on the computer.

🔰 Week 3: Character Design Exercise. You will design your own character. You'll discover the clipping mask technique, allowing you to integrate shadows and introduce color variation into your artwork.

🔰 Week 4: Realistic Portrait Painting. During our final week, we'll paint a realistic portrait, integrating all the techniques learned in the previous weeks. We'll also work on controlling opacity and managing layers.

-- HOMEWORK --

Students will be given digital painting assignments every week that allow them to practice what we covered in class. Students will receive positive and constructive feedback on drawings to get their paintings to a more professional level! 

-- PREREQUISITES --

⚠️⚠️⚠️ ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT AN INTRO COURSE. Students are required to have a minimum of 1 MONTH of experience using their digital painting software prior to joining the class.

Because every student will use different software, I will not be covering basic tools extensively. This class goes over more of the artistic principles of digital painting. Students should be familiar with basic digital drawing tools such as using their digital pencil and eraser.

If you are not sure if your student is ready to take this class, please send me examples of their artwork for a free consultation.

-- SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE --

This is an all-inclusive class where I'll be teaching in Photoshop, but alternatives such as Procreate, IbisPaint, Krita, Fire Alpaca, and Clip Studio Paint are all welcome.

Students should have a pressure-sensitive tablet and pen. It is also recommended for students to have 2 monitors for the best learning experience: one for the class video and one for their digital painting software.

Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. Excited to welcome you to the class!